Etc. etc. The headline at the link — to the Chicago Tribune — is "Teachers get creative with signs targeting mayor." Do they actually mean to compliment the teachers creativity? I'd prefer to think they're mocking moronic teacherspeak: That's very creative.

Just tell me if it's good or bad, lady. I don't need you boosting my self esteem over nothing.

And teachers, you look awful with your crappy signs. Why, when I was in school, and we didn't even have foam board for signs, and we had to use oak tag, we knew how to measure the space, count the letters, use a ruler to pencil in straight lines properly spaced, pencil in the letters, go over the letters in marker, and then erase the pencil with ArtGum. You wouldn't think of doing a project without following the basic requirements of lettering. You people are supposed to be teachers. Letter your damned signs properly... and then we can talk about whether you're creative.

And could you comb your hair before you go out in public? You need to set an example for the younger children. What's the right way to ask for more more more? Not with a sloppy sign, messy hair, and your angry face. Let's see your please may I face.

'The average teacher who retired in 2011 after 30 or more years of employment—what passes for a full career in the public sector—had a final salary of $105,888 and will receive an annual guaranteed pension of $78,576,' Biggs wrote. 'The salary puts the average Chicago teacher in the top 5% or so of workers nationwide, while even fewer private sector workers will receive a pension that generous.'"

"That seems a little harsh, Professor. They can't being ugly. Maybe they could stop being fools, but it's probably beyond them."

Even ugly people can clean up a bit. Dress like a professional and people tend to treat you like a professional. Those commie-red t-shirts and generally unkempt appearance don't do one thing to gain the respect of either their students or the public.

And could you comb your hair before you go out in public? You need to set an example for the younger children. What's the right way to ask for more more more? Not with a sloppy sign, messy hair, and your angry face. Let's see your please may I face.

They're putting their "rank and file" face. Power to the People! and all that bullshit.

The strike isn't primarily about pay, it's about accountability. The union is terrified that its teachers might be held accountable in the new contracts for their students inability to read or do math at grade level, which is presently the case for 75% of their young scholars.

'The average teacher who retired in 2011 after 30 or more years of employment—what passes for a full career in the public sector—had a final salary of $105,888 and will receive an annual guaranteed pension of $78,576,'

Holy crap! Who gets a pension of almost $80K? Do you know what it would cost to buy an equivalent lifetime annuity with cost-of-living adjustments, at age 55!? The answer is somewhere around a million and a half dollars.

If they put in 30 years of teaching that's about $50K per year above their salary. And that's before you start to figure in retirement health benefits.

Holy crap! Who gets a pension of almost $80K? Do you know what it would cost to buy an equivalent lifetime annuity with cost-of-living adjustments, at age 55!? The answer is somewhere around a million and a half dollars.

It's worse than that. I went to ImmediateAnnuities.com and pluged in 55 year old female in IL with a $6550 monthly income. The estimated cost is $1,531.089. That's without the annual cost of living allowance. They didn't have a cost of living allowance on their website but I'm sure it would raise the estimated cost substancially. That isn't counting the health insurance benefit costs, either.

While public employees are sucking the life out of government budgets with their never-ending greed for "more, more, more!", the rest of us are having to save via IRAs and 401Ks for our own retirements. We're facing having to pay much higher taxes and make do with less so public employees can retire in comfort. Screw them and the unions they rode in on.

When I student taught in the early 1990s, I spent a couple hundred bucks getting dockers and dress shirts -- I thought I was dressing at the minimum that my teachers had shown in the 1970s and 1980.

I was better dressed than the majority of the staff.

That a number of other factors made me realize that teachers no longer thought of themselves as a profession with standards.

Yep. When school districts have to make rules against their teachers wearing flip-flops or shorts or tube tops to work, some degree of professionalism would appear to have evaporated.

Enh, my public-school-teaching husband goes to work with a tie on, except when he goes with a banded-collar shirt. He is always dressed like a professional in front of his students, and they call him "Mr. Thomson." (Okay, there were a couple of girls at his previous school who were prone to call him "Georgie-poo," but that was an isolated incident.)

This strike is all campaign theatrics. They strike on bogus issues, Rahmster and Obummer come down hard on unions, proving they have the backbone and stuff, and the strikers meekly go back to work. It's not like the teachers unions are going to quit donating to Obama. Only -- Egypt, Libya, Yemen stole their thunder. The have to wait now until they have Obama's full attention.

This is what Madison in Chicago looks like. I'm laughing so fucking hard at the cannibalistic nature of leftist has in it's enclaves. Leftists are idiots. If you subscribe to the leftist ideology, frankly you are a fucking moron. Truly.

I went to public school K-12. But my mother taught me to read when I was 3. I always read at least 4 grades above my grade level when I was in school until I graduated from H.S. So those "If you can read this, thank a teacher" bumper stickers don't impress me.

I went to public school K-12. But my mother taught me to read when I was 3. I always read at least 4 grades above my grade level when I was in school until I graduated from H.S. So those "If you can read this, thank a teacher" bumper stickers don't impress me.

Try to imagine how this ends. Can Rahm just throw more money at them (does Chicago even have it to throw)? Can the union accept the idea that evaluations are needed because there are a non-trivial number of really awful teachers?

However it comes out both Rahm and the union are losers. Only winner here is Walker. Chicago will really hate that (just like they do when Green Bay is the winner).

When I student taught in the early 1990s, I spent a couple hundred bucks getting dockers and dress shirts -- I thought I was dressing at the minimum that my teachers had shown in the 1970s and 1980.

I was better dressed than the majority of the staff.

That a number of other factors made me realize that teachers no longer thought of themselves as a profession with standards.

You were pre-Department of Education weren't you?

Carter left us with so many lovely things; HMO's (precursors to our pre-paid medical that they call insurance although it's no such thing), the Department of Education which requires that teachers get degrees in Education and exclude many from teaching who have degrees in other disciplines, and, until Tuesday, the last Ambassador murdered on his watch.

The Department of Education came into being 3 weeks before I graduated from High School. I only had to deal with New Math as an elementary school student.

When I student taught in the early 1990s, I spent a couple hundred bucks getting dockers and dress shirts -- I thought I was dressing at the minimum that my teachers had shown in the 1970s and 1980.

I was better dressed than the majority of the staff.

That a number of other factors made me realize that teachers no longer thought of themselves as a profession with standards.

You were pre-Department of Education weren't you?

No, Carter formed the Department of Education as a sop to the teachers union in 1979 and it started operations in 1980. Gee, what did America do for 200 years before we had a Department of Education? No one must've learned anything then (except enough to invent the airplane, atomic bomb and send people to the moon, among others).